August 24 - 26, 2025

Toronto, Ontario > Jasper, Alberta

Aboard the Canadian Via Rail Train #1, aptly named the Canadian.

This morning started as a repeat of yesterday. Breakfast from Tim Horton’s, coffee from the bistro in the lobby of the hotel. Bags down in the lobby by 08:00 and aboard the bus immediately there after. The bus took us to the beaux-arts Union Station down by the waterfront. Construction on the station began in 1914 admist World War 1. However, due to material shortages the station didn’t officially open until 1927.

Since then, Union Station has welcomed waves of immigrants to Canada and more specifically Toronto, survived a major fire, and endured more than 90 years of wear and tear. IN 1975, Parks Canada designated Union Station a National Historic Site. Union station is one of the finest examples of the great urban train stations built during the early 20th century. The City of Toronto has managed and owned the station since 2000 and is still working on a multi-year, perhaps decade, revitalization which has the station looking spectacular.

It was a short ride to the station where we disembarked, said goodbye to our larger luggage. Due to the cabin size, we are only able to have a small carryon in the cabin. We were directed in to the waiting room which was very nice with free coffee, from a machine and not worth drinking, and tea, which wasn’t bad. We had our ticket now for Car 10 Cabin A.

Cabin A is a sleeper plus cabin. Slightly smaller than two king size beds. It has, in that space, a toilet, sink, a closet (about a foot wide), and two chairs. At night the cabin in converted into to sleeper. The chairs disappear and an upper and lower bunk appear. That happens while you are at dinner. We signed up for the first seating of each meal.

Cabin A

The closet

The train was scheduled to leave at 09:55. Boarding of the train began a little after 09:00. We were on board and in our cabin about 09:30. We acquainted ourselves with our home for the next three days. Not that really took more than about 10 minutes. There wasn’t any unpacking, as there was nowhere to put anything.

Our instructions were to wait for our cabin attendant to come and show us the features of our Cabin. A nice young woman, Sydney, came by and showed us where the various switches were and gave us instructions on how to notify her when we were ready to have our bed turned down. We sat in our seats and used my small roller bag as a table between the two chairs and waited for the first call to lunch.

9:55 came and went. No movement of the train. We waited and read our books and just relaxed. The chairs are very 1950. They are not moveable, have a heavy metal frame and vinyl coverings stretched over a thick not particularly yielding padding. They don’t face the window, but face the toilet door and sink. There is plenty of light from the window and if you look to your left you can see out the fairly large window. There was a call for lunch right at 11:00 on the nose. We put down our books and headed in the direction of the dinning car.

Out the narrow cabin door. Turn left into the corridor, walk a few paces, turn left again, then immediately turn right. The configuration of this end of the train changes. Here there are cabins on wither side of the train car. These look like cabins for single people, and don’t appear to have a toilet, just a sink. There are two on each side of the car.

Once past the single cabins you are at the door between train cars. Pull one, exit, push the next one, enter. The next car is a “community” car. Tables and chair and large windows for watching the scenery go by. A third of the way into the car are the steps up to the observation or domed portion of of the car. Really nice view of the scenery from a little high perspective. If you don’t go up the stairs, just to the right of the stairs are a couple steps down into a narrow corridor with the hostess’ food preparation cabins, and a storage cabin. Then back up two stairs to the small snack area with coffee, tea, and fruit and cookies. Next to the snack area is another lounge area with table and chairs.

The first area has fixed seating. Vinyl covered bench seat on one side the table and chairs on the other. There are a couple bench type seats, also in vinyl, which face the windows. Very comfortable. The second lounge has tables and chairs, not bench seats. Continuing on from the lounge car you get to the next set of doors on the train.

Push one, pull on, and you are in the dinning car. Well actually you are in a corridor leading past the food storage area. You walk along the corridor and the corridor changes and you make a left across the train car to the other side, where there in another corridor. This first time the food storage was on your left and you walked down the right side of the train, then you cross over and the kitchen is on your right as you walk down the corridor.

The dinning car

Finally, you exit into the dinning room. There is a row of tables, for four people, down either side of the coach. They are beautifully presented with white tablecloths, silverware, salt & pepper shakers, butter in a small ceramic ramekin and glassware. The dinning room manager seats you at a table. If there are two of you, you both go on the same side of the table, and another couple joins you facing you. The tables aren’t very long, so you are sitting shoulder to shoulder. It is a good way to meet your traveling companions.

The menu isn’t extensive, but there is a meat dish, fish dish and a vegetarian dish. In some cases, two meat or two fish. You start the meal with either a simple green salad or the soup of the day, which varies by day, if you want. They bring you a freshly baked roll. The dinning room manager then comes by and takes your drink order. The serve Canadian wines and beer, and various soft drinks. Soft drinks, tea and coffee are included.

The food is well prepared and has a good flavor. After you have finished your lunch they have a short dessert selection, which usually includes ice cream. In addition to the one or two freshly baked cakes or pies.

We had this first lunch serving while sitting in the station. Just as we were finishing our lunch, about 12:30 the train began to move. We were told there was derailment on the track ahead which was causing us to change the pattern of the trip. Instead of immediately heading west from Toronto, we were diverted east back to Hamilton, about halfway to Niagara Falls, before heading west. Apparently, this was going to put us about six and a half hours late. Their comments lead us to believe that Canadian trains rarely run on time, and this was par for the course.

After lunch on our way to our cabin we stopped in the observation or dome lounge if the first lounge car. We spent a few minutes there looking at the flora and fauna. The we retrieved our canasta cards from our cabin, and headed to the lounge to play cards. We play a full game of canasta and then returned to our cabin for a rest before the first dinner call at 17:00. When the announcement for the first seating of dinner was called, we headed towards dinning car. However, before we left, we put out the please convert our cabin to sleeping quarters.  

The observation or dome deck

Dinner was quite enjoyable. Mary had lasagna which was accompanied by garlic bread, roast potatoes, carrots, and a boiled leek. I chose the top sirloin which included same sides, roast potatoes, carrots, and a boiled leek. When we return from dinner our cabin was made up for the evening with the beds in place. The chairs were gone of course. So, again, we grabbed our canasta cards and headed to the lounge.

After a two games of canasta we returned to our cabin for the night. We got ready for bed, and climbed into our bunks. Mary chose the upper bunk, which was a bit of a challenge for her to get into. Clearly once down for the night, you don’t want to have to thank about getting down until morning. We sat in bed reading before lights out.

That night we continued to roll along the rails though the province of Ontario. Ontario is the largest province in Canada, has about 40% of Canada’s population is approximately 2,500 km (1600 miles) east to west. At dinner they asked us to change our clock back one hour. Although we don’t officially change time zones until we enter Manitoba some time midday, it is necessary to keep the meal service on schedule.

We arrived in Sudbury Junction Ontario just a little after 1 AM. We spent the rest of the night and the next day still gliding on the rails though Ontario. Sometime, again in the middle of the night we crossed into the province of Manitoba, and arrive in Winnipeg while I was at breakfast.

Generally each day went as the day before. We did decide to not have the cabin returned to seating but just leave the bunks in place. It is comfortable to lie in the bunk and read or do most anything else. During the day there are the lounge cars for playing cards or just sitting and watching the scenery.

Speaking of scenery, Canada is quite beautiful. Often as not from the train you don’t see the best side of anything from the train tracks. There is a lot of commercial and industrial activity just off the tracks. However, the first day this was more true than the next day. There were fields and stands of trees all along the route. The first day the land was generally flat gently rolling hills. By the second day the scenery began to change to more forest.

The trees began to change from mostly alder and paper white birch, to a combination that included more fir and pine. The landscape still had a number of lakes, streams and rivers but the topography changed from gently rolling hills to a combination of rolling hills and an occasional large hill. Tuesday, we went to bed with a mixture of fir, pine, alder and birch among the rolling hills of the countryside. Wednesday we woke up to mountains covered with fir and pine and the occasional birch. We were in Jasper, Alberta. During the night we passed through Manitoba and crossed into the province of Alberta.

But that is another day.

Buonanotte e ciao

Enrico e Maria